First Man to Walk in Space: Alexei Leonov March 18, 1965 - YouTube First Man to Walk in Space: Alexei Leonov March 18, 1965 Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Mar 5, 2009 Alexei Leonov, was the first man to "walk" in space on March 18, 1965. Though he was expected to become a professional artist, aviation beckoned and Leonov was soon flying jets and studying engineering. When the call came for Cosmonaut candidates in 1959, 25 year old Leonov was picked as one of the first 20 Cosmonauts. Leonov's space walk beat Astronaut Ed White's by three months. Leonov's Voskhod capsule carried two men, like Gemini, but the Soviets constructed an inflatable airlock for Leonov's spacewalk.

There were tense moments when Leonov found his spacesuit too rigid to reenter the airlock. Leonov bled air out of his suit, but was barely able to return. Later, a rocket malfunction forced Leonov and his crewmate to land in mountains and deep snow, with wolves growling and scratching at Voskhod's partly open hatch. Leonov was to be the Commander of the first Soviet Moon mission, cancelled when Apollo 11 took the prize in 1969. Leonov and lunar co-pilot Valery Kubasov were then assigned to Salyut 1, the first Soviet space station. But Kubasov fell ill, and the backup crew sent to Salyut died when an air valve failed in their spacecraft as they were returning to Earth. Leonov and Kubasov were re-assigned to the Apollo-Soyuz project, the first linking of Soviet and American spacecraft in 1975. Leonov trained in Houston, learning English and impressing everyone with his quick wit, humor, and charm. General Leonov is a Renaissance man; a gifted athlete, pilot and self-taught artist.

He is a highly decorated survivor of the harrowing days of the U.S.-Soviet Space Race. He has cheated death several times, in an early parachute accident, then twice aboard his Voskhod 2 spacewalk mission. Leonov would have died in place of his backup crew had not Valery Kubasov fallen ill before their Salyut-1 flight. Leonov also survived when his car skidded and plunged into a deep ice-covered lake. Leonov heroically pulled his wife and driver to safety. He survived an assasination attempt on Premier Brezhnev when their car was showered in with bullets. The driver was killed, but Leonov managed to crouch behind the seat. Leonov has always indulged in his love of art, painting everything from stoic Russian churches, Siberian snow scenes and of course, space art. As the first artist in space, Leonov often paints from actual color sketches done in space aboard his two flights. Although self-taught, his works show a polish and realism typical of a trained professional. After a joint exhibition with American space artists in Moscow, he led the Soviet space artists to the International Space Art Workshop held in Iceland the following year.

Leonov's works have been displayed all over the former Soviet Union, and at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. He has been published in several books (in Russian) and in "In The Stream of Stars: The Soviet-American Space Art Book" by Dr. William K. Hartmann. General Leonov is deputy director of Gagarin Cosmonaut Center, in charge of international and guest cosmonauts. He is also editor, designer, and cartoonist for APOGEE, the formerly supersecret cosmonaut newsletter. His wife Svetlana is a teacher, and they have two daughters, Viktoria and Oksana. Category International Space Hall of Fame :: New Mexico Museum of Space History :: Inductee Profile Inducted in 1976 The first man to walk in space. Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov is a former Soviet cosmonaut who is also an accomplished artist. In 1965, he became the first person to step out of a spacecraft and walk in space. In 1975, he commanded the Soyuz spacecraft that took part in the first rendezvous between a Soviet and United States spacecraft.

Leonov was born in Listvyanka in the Altai region of Siberia on May 30, 1934. He graduated from the Soviet Air Force Academy of Arts in Riga then attended Pilot prep school in Kremenchug. In 1957, he graduated with honors from the Chuguyev Higher Air Force School and, in 1968, from the Zhukovskiy Air Force Engineering Academy. He earned a Candidate of Technical Sciences degree in 1981. In 1960, Alexei Leonov became one of the original twenty cosmonauts chosen by the Russian space program. His first spaceflight was the Voskhod 2 mission on March 18, 1965. Pavel Belyayev commanded the 26-hour flight and Leonov was the Pilot. Ninety minutes after the launch, Leonov became the first person to walk in space, floating freely outside the Voskhod capsule for more than ten minutes high above the Earth.

When Leonov attempted to return to the capsule he could not because the pressure difference between the air in his space suit, and the vacuum of space, expanded the suit, making it so rigid he could not work his fingers. Eventually he bled some of the air out of the suit and was able to close the lock's outer hatch. By the time Leonov ended his spacewalk it had lasted over twenty minutes. During re-entry the onboard computer for the Voskhod malfunctioned and the capsule landed over 600 miles off course in a remote section of the Ural Mountains. After two days and a cold night in the wilderness the cosmonauts were finally rescued. Alexei Leonov received the Hero of the Soviet Union award for his spacewalk and became deputy commander of the cosmonaut team, teaching other cosmonauts how to perform extravehicular activities. He also worked on the Soviet lunar landing program and was going to be the leader of the first Soviet manned lunar mission. Once that was cancelled after Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969, he began training for the Salyut space station project.

In 1971, Leonov was assigned to the Salyut 1 mission, but he and his crew were replaced when Copilot Valery Kubasov fell ill. The three-member crew that did fly, however, died on June 29, 1971 during reentry when an air valve failed. Ten years after Voskhod 2, Alexei Leonov re-entered space in 1975 as commander of the Soyuz 19 mission, the first joint Soviet-U.S. space project. The mission was known as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in the United States. Leonov's training included learning the English language and making three visits to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. His friendly demeanor won over many Americans and did much to change Western perceptions of Soviet cosmonauts. On July 15, 1975, Leonov and Valery Kubasov were aboard Soyuz 19 as it lifted off from Baikanor Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the same day the Americans launched an Apollo capsule from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Two days later the two spacecraft docked, allowing the crews to rotate between the two spacecraft and conducted mainly ceremonial activities. Leonov was on the American side for five hours and 43 minutes, while Kubasov spent four hours and 57 minutes in the command and docking modules. After being docked for nearly 44 hours, Apollo and Soyuz parted for the first time and were "station-keeping" at a range of 160 feet. The Apollo crew placed its craft between Soyuz and the sun so that the diameter of the service module formed a disk that blocked out the sun. After this experiment, Apollo moved towards Soyuz for the second docking. Three hours later Apollo and Soyuz undocked for the second and final time. The spacecraft moved to a 130-foot station-keeping distance so that an ultraviolet absorption experiment could be performed. With all the joint flight activities completed, the ships went on their separate ways. On July 21, 1975, the safe landing of Soyuz 19 ended Leonov's career in space. He logged 7.02 days in space on his two flights. He was awarded a second Hero of the Soviet Union award for ASTP.

In his career he received the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Star awards. Unfortunately it would take another two decades and the fall of the Soviet Union before astronauts and cosmonauts would work together in space again. From 1976 to 1982, Leonov was the commander of the cosmonaut team, and deputy director of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. He retired from government service in 1991 with the rank of Major General in the Soviet Air Force. General Leonov next chaired an investment corporation in Moscow. He is an accomplished artist, specializing in painting scenes with space themes. Leonov Crater, on the far side of the Moon, is named for him. Alexei Leonov quotes: "The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic. The Earth was absolutely round. I believe I never knew what the word round meant until I saw Earth from space." "The spacesuit started behaving absolutely different from what it did on the ground" (Referring to his difficulty in ending his spacewalk). "Dear and intelligent people who decided to show all of humanity that we are different ...

but can work together." (Recalling the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project). "Remember that time â the insane mistrust, not just for people but between countries." (Referring to the Cold War) "It showed that our country was capable of making a scientific discovery of global importance. We forget that we use the results of space exploration everyday. Cellular telephones, television programming, satellite navigation -- all this is a result of what we did, which became a way of life." © 2005- 2016 The New Mexico Museum of Space History , a Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs . Photographs not the property of the New Mexico Museum of Space History appear courtesy of NASA image archives.

New Mexico Museum of Space History | PO Box 5430 | Alamogordo, NM 88311-5430 575-437-2840/877-333-6589 An American walks in space - Jun 03, 1965 - HISTORY.com An American walks in space Share this: An American walks in space Author An American walks in space URL Publisher A+E Networks One hundred and 20 miles above the earth, Major Edward H. White II opens the hatch of the Gemini 4 and steps out of the capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to walk in space. Attached to the craft by a 25-foot tether and controlling his movements with a hand-held oxygen jet-propulsion gun, White remained outside the capsule for just over 20 minutes. As a space walker, White had been preceded by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov, who on March 18, 1965, was the first man ever to walk in space.

Implemented at the height of the space race, NASA’s Gemini program was the least famous of the three U.S.-manned space programs conducted during the 1960s. However, as an extension of Project Mercury, which put the first American in space in 1961, Gemini laid the groundwork for the more dramatic Apollo lunar missions, which began in 1968. The Gemini space flights were the first to involve multiple crews, and the extended duration of the missions provided valuable information about the biological effects of longer-term space travel. When the Gemini program ended in 1966, U.S. astronauts had also perfected rendezvous and docking maneuvers with other orbiting vehicles, a skill that would be essential during the three-stage Apollo moon missions. Related Videos The First Man To Walk In Space Almost Got Stuck Out There The First Man To Walk In Space Almost Got Stuck Out There Go to permalink Today I found out that the first man to walk in space almost got stuck out there. That lucky individual was Alexei Leonov, who was born in the Soviet Union on May 30, 1934.

He was one of the twenty Soviet Air Force Pilots to be chosen for the first cosmonaut group. Advertisement Originally, his historic walk was supposed to have happened on the Vostok 11 mission, but as that was cancelled; it was later performed on the Voskhod 2 mission instead. After eighteen long months of training for the event, Leonov was ready to become the first person to walk in space. The Voskhod 2 launched on March 18, 1965. In addition to Leonov, Pavel Belyayev was on board to man the ship while Leonov attempted the space walk. It was the first trip into space for both of the crew members. Advertisement Once in orbit, Leonov strapped on an EVA (extra-vehicular activity) backpack to his spacesuit. It provided him with just 45 minutes of oxygen, which would allow him to breathe and keep cool; meanwhile, heat, moisture, and carbon dioxide would be vented into space via a relief valve. Belyayev pressurized the inflatable airlock, which took seven minutes to fully inflate.

Everything went smoothly at first and Leonov spent a total of 12 minutes and 9 seconds out on his space walk. He described the experience by saying he felt “like a seagull with its wings outstretched, soaring high above the Earth.” Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and he needed to get back inside the spacecraft before he ran out of air. But getting back inside proved to be a problem. Sponsored He maneuvered himself back to the airlock, but then realized that his suit had become incredibly stiff. Due to the lack of atmospheric pressure, it had bloated with oxygen. His feet and hands had pulled away from his boots and gloves, and he knew it was going to be incredibly difficult to get himself back into the ship safely. There was only one way to do it: wriggle in head-first while bleeding off the oxygen in his suit. Advertisement Advertisement I knew I might be risking oxygen starvation, but I had no choice. If I did not reenter the craft, within the next 40 minutes my life support would be spent anyway. Leonov thought about contacting mission control about his predicament and let them know about the risky thing he was about to do, but decided not to.

He knew that he was the only one who could do anything about the situation and he didn’t want to worry the people on the ground. As he released oxygen and exerted himself, his suit began to heat up dangerously with his core body temperature rising 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.8 degrees Celsius), as he slowly clambered into the airlock inch by inch. Advertisement Once he was finally in, he had to let even more air out so he could curl his body around to close the hatch, which he eventually accomplished. At last with the hatch sealed, Belyayev was able to pressurize the airlock again and Leonov made it back inside the spacecraft after the heart-stopping few minutes of struggle. On the ground, people had watched the very first spacewalk, though Leonov’s struggle to get back inside the spacecraft wasn’t televised. At the first sign of trouble, the transmissions shown on televisions on Earth “randomly” stopped with no explanation, with most assuming technical difficulties with the broadcast feed.

Leonov was thankful they didn’t show his re-enty, “My family was therefore spared the anxiety they would have had to endure had they known how close I came to being stranded in space.” Advertisement Advertisement Unfortunately, this was only the start of the problems. Just five minutes before they were scheduled to begin re-entry, the crewmen discovered that the automatic guidance system wasn’t functioning. They would have to land the spacecraft manually and were also dangerously low on fuel to maneuver to boot. To do the necessary maneuvers, Leonov stated: Pasha began orienting the craft for reentry. This was no easy task—in order to use the optical device necessary for orientation, he had to lean horizontally across both seats in the spacecraft, while I held him steady in front of the orientation porthole. We then had to maneuver ourselves back into the correct positions in our seats very rapidly so that the spacecraft’s center of gravity was correct during the reentry burn. The difficulty of the landing was compounded by politics. They had to land on Soviet soil; if they overshot and landed in China, which had very poor relations with Soviet Russia at the time, a potential international incident could have ensued. They also had to choose somewhere without many people.

Thus, Leonov chose Perm, a sparsely populated area far from China. It seemed like a safe bet. Advertisement However, additional problems started as they entered the Earth’s atmosphere. The craft began spinning uncontrollably. Why? The orbital module was still attached to the landing module. The modules hadn’t fully detached when they were supposed to, due to a thick communication cable connecting the two. Not only did it throw the landing location off significantly, but the two craft spun around one another, subjecting the cosmonauts to as high as 10 G’s of force. So much, that Lenov said that the “small blood vessels in our eyes burst”. At around 62 miles high (100 km), the cable burned up and they were able to stabilize and land successfully… in two meters of snow in Solikamsk on the outskirts of frigid Siberia. Advertisement Advertisement Upon attempting to open the hatch, they further had difficulty after the explosive bolts blew. Rather than the hatch opening, it was stuck shut: Looking out of the window, we could see the hatch was jammed against a big birch tree.

We had no alternative but to start rocking the hatch violently back and forth, trying to shift it clear of the tree. Then, using all his strength, Pasha managed to push the hatch away from the remains of the bolts, and it slid back and disappeared into the snow. At this point, Leonov and Belyayev’s families were told that the two had landed safely and were resting before returning to Moscow. However, Soviet officials hadn’t picked up on the rescue signal, and had little idea where they’d landed or even if they were still alive. Lucky for the cosmonauts, a cargo plane did pick up on the signal and the word of their location spread around. Initial attempts at rescue were made by civilian aircraft, with helicopter pilots and others throwing the two down supplies, including wolf skin boots and cognac. (Note: contrary to popular belief, drinking alcohol in such a situation would make hypothermia significantly more likely, rather than it heating your body. ) Advertisement In the end, they ultimately had to spend the night in a place packed with wolves and bears during mating season- when they’re most aggressive- and where the temperature dropped to -22 degrees Fahrenheit (-30 C) according to Leonov.

They also had no way to re-seal the landing module, so simply had to hunker down and endure the night. The temperature problem was compounded by the fact that their suits had sweat sloshing around up to their ankles, along with being soaked through the inner layers. We had to strip naked, take off our underwear, and wring the moisture out of it. We then had to pour out what liquid had accumulated in our spacesuits. We went on to separate the rigid part of the suit from its softer lining—nine layers of aluminum foil and a synthetic material called dederone—and then put the softer part of the suits back on over our underwear and pull our boots and gloves back on. The next day, a rescue crew arrived traveling via skis, while another came a day later and chopped down trees, making a log cabin and a huge fire to keep the team and cosmonauts warm. They then all traveled nine kilometers by ski to a clearing where a helicopter was waiting for them. Advertisement Advertisement Upon arriving in the town of Leninsk, they had one last duty: to report on their mission. Leonov said simply, Provided with a special suit, man can survive and work in open space. Thank you for your attention.

He didn’t go into detail about his brush with death. It’s possible that he was told not to; details of the harrowing mission weren’t released until much later. If you liked this article, you might also enjoy: Advertisement 10 Interesting Space Facts Bonus Facts: You are simultaneously hurtling around the Sun at 66,600 mph while sitting on a “rock” that is spinning at about 1,070 mph. On top of that, our whole solar system is rocketing through space around the center of the Milky Way at about 559,234 mph. On top of that, our galaxy is hurtling through space at about 671,080 mph, with respect to our local group of galaxies. On top of that, for all we know, our entire universe is hurtling through some medium at some other ridiculous speed. Either way, you’re moving really, really fast right now while reading this. Slow down you crazy kids with your rap music. Leonov said that had he been unable to get back inside the space craft, he had a suicide pill to make his death swifter and more pleasant than dying of asphyxia.

As a child, Leonov never thought he’d be a pilot, let alone a cosmonaut; he originally wanted to become an artist. American Astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in space, just three short months after Leonov accomplished it. Despite completing an amazing feat that turned out to be “one giant leap for mankind” so to speak, not everyone was happy about Leonov’s accomplishments. Writing about his experiences in 2005, he said that he later learned that his four-year-old daughter covered her eyes and started crying when he emerged from the airlock, sobbing, “What is he doing? What is he doing? Please tell Daddy to get back inside.” Similarly, he stated that his father was appalled by his space walk. He stated to journalists covering the event, “Why is he acting like a juvenile delinquent? Everyone else can complete their mission properly, inside the spacecraft. What is he doing clambering about outside? Somebody must tell him to get back inside immediately…” Leonov went on to win many awards and distinctions and was even featured on stamps. He made another trip into space which was also significant—the first joint endeavor between the U.S.

and the Soviets in 1975. Emily Upton writes for the wildly popular interesting fact website TodayIFoundOut.com . To subscribe to Today I Found Out's “Daily Knowledge” newsletter, click here or like them on Facebook here . Advertisement This post has been republished with permission from TodayIFoundOut.com . Gear from Kinja Deals Cause of Death for Yuri Gagarin, 1st Man in Space, Finally Revealed By Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor | June 17, 2013 02:55pm ET MORE Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to fly in space, as seen in 1968 before his death in a jet crash. Credit: RSC Energia The circumstances surrounding the death of the first man in space Yuri Gagarin, who was killed in a 1968 jet crash, have long been clouded in theories and rumors. Now, the first man to walk in space says he can reveal what really happened to his friend and fellow Russian cosmonaut.

Alexei Leonov, who in 1965 became the first man to leave a spacecraft and float in the open vacuum of space, has worked for years to learn what led to Gagarin's death . He finally gained permission and spoke about the details in an interview released on Friday (June 14) by the state-funded Russia Today (RT) television network. Yuri Gagarin made history by launching on the world's first manned spaceflight on April 12, 1961. He died just shy of his Vostok 1 mission's seventh anniversary, on March 27, 1968, when the MiG-15 fighter jet that he and instructor Vladimir Seryogin were piloting on a routine training flight went down outside a small town near Moscow. [ Photo Gallery: First Man in Space — Yuri Gagarin in Pictures ] Leonov, who had been in the vicinity that day and reported hearing two loud booms in the distance, served on the state commission that investigated the crash.

The official findings reported Gagarin and Seryogin had maneuvered to avoid colliding with bird or other object, and as a result, entered a tailspin and plummeted to the ground. "That conclusion is believable to a civilian — [but] not to a professional," Leonov, now 79, explained to RT. "In fact, everything went down differently." Video still showing former Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space, during his interview with the RT television network. Credit: Russia Today Vodka, vent or vertical drop The official explanation of how Yuri Gagarin died did not go unchallenged, and not by Leonov alone. Many theories, ranging from the technical to the conspiratorial, have been raised in the decades since.

[ Vostok 1: Yuri Gagarin's Historic Manned Spaceflight Recalled (Video) ] The Soviet government, military and even the KGB looked into some the claims, dismissing rumors that Gagarin had been intoxicated, or that he and Seryogin had been "taking potshots at wild deer from their plane, causing it to spiral out of control," as Leonov recounted in "Two Sides of the Moon," the joint-biography he penned with U.S. astronaut David Scott in 2004. The government's investigations also ruled out sabotage. Documents declassified in 2003 revealed that the KGB had suspected air traffic controllers as having contributed inadvertently to the crash by providing bad weather data. Gagarin and Seryogin were led to believe that a bank of clouds were higher than they really were, leaving them too little time to recover from a spin, the intelligence agency suggested. Yet another theory, put forth by a retired Soviet Air Force colonel, proposed that the pilot who had previously flown the MiG-15 jet had tampered with or otherwise left an air vent open in the cockpit, leading to Gagarin and Seryogin suffering from oxygen deprivation at altitude.

For his part, Leonov held for years that he thought the first loud boom he heard was another jet breaking the sound barrier , followed soon thereafter by the sound of Gagarin's jet hitting the ground. Another pilot's error "We knew that a Su-15 [fighter jet] was scheduled to be tested that day, but it was supposed to be flying at the altitude of 10,000 meters [33,000 feet] or higher, not 450-500 meters [1,480-1,640 feet]," Leonov told RT. "It was a violation of the flight procedure." A new declassified report confirmed that an unauthorized Sukhoi (Su-15) supersonic jet flew dangerously close to Gagarin's MiG-15.

"While afterburning the aircraft reduced its echelon at a distance of 10-15 meters [30-50 ft] in the clouds, passing close to Gagarin, turning his plane and thus sending it into a tailspin — a deep spiral, to be precise — at a speed of 750 kilometers per hour [470 miles per hour]," Leonov said in the television interview. Upon seeing the released report, Leonov also realized that his own account of that day had been recorded incorrectly. The report suggested that he heard the loud booms 15 to 20 seconds apart, when it was actually two seconds. "That suggested that the two jets must have been no less than 50 kilometers apart." Leonov said. Armed with the report's data, a new computer simulation was generated, revealing why Gagarin's jet went down. "Now, a jet can sink into a deep spiral if a larger, heavier aircraft passes by too close and flips [the jet] over with its backwash. And that is exactly what happened to Gagarin . That trajectory was the only one that corresponded with all our input parameters," Leonov told RT.

Leonov was allowed to go public with the story, except for one detail: the Su-15 pilot's name. That pilot, who is now 80, is said to be in poor health. "I was asked not to disclose the pilot's name," Leonov explained. "He is a good test pilot... It will fix nothing." Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @ collectSPACE . Copyright 2013 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved. Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space | Science | The Guardian The Observer Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space ‘I was surrounded by stars, floating without control,’ recalls the cosmonaut who made history 50 years ago on a mission that nearly cost him his life An artist’s rendering of the first space walk by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.

Photograph: Rykoff Collection/Corbis Saturday 9 May 2015 12.06 EDT Last modified on Saturday 9 May 2015 19.00 EDT Close This article is 1 year old Fifty years ago, Alexei Leonov opened the airlock of his tiny space capsule, which was orbiting the Earth, and stepped into the void. For 12 minutes the Soviet cosmonaut floated above our planet, tethered to his ship by a 16ft cable. In doing so, Leonov became the first person to walk in space. The first space walk – in pictures Read more It was an event of extraordinary importance – for spacewalks have since become a mainstay of most major manned endeavours in Earth orbit. More than 200 astronauts – floating free in space on extra-vehicular activity, or EVAs – have since carried out tasks ranging from the repair of the Hubble space telescope to the construction of the international space station.

As Leonov told the Observer: “It is impossible to imagine the development of any serious space project or experiment without EVAs today.” Spacewalks can be dangerous, however, and Leonov’s own mission very nearly ended in disaster after it was afflicted by a series of mishaps that will form the core of a new film, First Time , scheduled for release in Russia next year. It will tell a story that is every bit as dramatic as Apollo 13, the US lunar mission – filmed with Tom Hanks – that also came close to catastrophe. Leonov – now 80 – is scheduled to give a first-person account of his spacewalk, and other aspects of his career as chief cosmonaut for the Soviet Union, when he speaks at the Science Museum in London this month. Pinterest Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, right, at an awarding ceremony in Moscow’s Kremlin. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/AP In 1965 the Soviet Union appeared to be well ahead of the US in the race to land the first humans on the Moon.

It had put the first satellite, the first animal, the first man, and the first woman into orbit and, knowing that America was planning to allow one of its astronauts, Ed White, to take a spacewalk in June that year, it decided to add another first to its list of space achievements by getting a Soviet cosmonaut to do an EVA before then. Leonov, who had trained as a cosmonaut with Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, was selected for the task. On 18 March he was blasted into orbit in a two-man Voskhod capsule which he shared with his commander, Pavel Belyayev. After completing one orbit, Leonov was given the go-ahead to begin his spacewalk and crawled into the craft’s makeshift airlock. He opened its hatch, slid out and floated into space to begin his mission. Leonov still remembers the utter silence he experienced when he emerged from his spaceship. “It was so quiet I could even hear my heart beat,” he told the Observer. “I was surrounded by stars and was floating without much control. I will never forget the moment. I also felt an incredible sense of responsibility.

Of course, I did not know that I was about to experience the most difficult moments of my life – getting back into the capsule.” Leonov’s spacewalk very nearly ended in disaster. In the vacuum of outer space, his spacesuit began to balloon out of shape and its fabric began to stiffen dangerously. His hands slipped out of his gloves, his feet came out of his boots, and Leonov could no longer get through his spaceship’s airlock. Even worse, the craft was hurtling towards Earth’s shadow. In five minutes, the cosmonaut realised he would be plunged into total darkness. So he began bleeding air from his suit from a valve in its inner lining. Very slowly his suit deflated, just as Leonov began to notice the first signs of decompression sickness. “I could feel pins and needles in my hands and legs,” he recalled. Leonov squeezed himself headfirst through the airlock and just managed to close its hatch behind him, his temperature by now soaring through the extreme exertion of his return to the spaceship. Leonov slumped back in his seat beside Belyayev. His woes were far from over, however.

First, a charge was fired to blast the airlock – which was no longer needed – into space. The explosion caused Voskhod 2 to rotate, disorienting its two crewmen. At the same time, instruments showed oxygen levels in the capsule were now climbing at an alarming rate, threatening to trigger a blaze that would have burned both men alive. Several hours passed before Leonov and Belyayev could get the craft’s oxygen levels back to normal. By now, the spaceship was scheduled to return to Earth. However, the two cosmonauts discovered its automatic re-entry system no longer worked. So the pair fired the craft’s re-entry rockets manually. This manoeuvre should have separated the landing capsule, containing Leonov and Belyayev, from the spaceship’s orbital module. “A few seconds after the firing of the engine, we felt a jolt as the orbital module separated from our cabin – but something went wrong,” said Leonov. “We felt a tugging force pulling us back! I looked out of a window and saw the orbital module was still connected to us by a communications cable.

As a result, both modules were spinning rapidly as we fell steeply to Earth!” Voskhod 2 was plunging to destruction, but was saved by the heat of re-entry which burnt through the communications cable. The landing module separated and its parachutes were deployed. “We were safe,” he said. Pinterest Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in 1965 Photograph: Associated Press The crewmen’s problems had still not reached an end. Their craft landed 2,000 kilometres downrange from its intended target and plunged into a dense Siberian forest. It took two days before a rescue mission reached the pair, who had to huddle in their tiny capsule in temperatures well below zero. “We spent two cold nights in the forest,” said Leonov. “We did not meet wolves or bears, but we knew that there were many of them around. It was spring time and the animals were very aggressive. Once again, we were lucky!” At the time, the Russians hailed the mission as a complete success. In fact, it had come close to ending in disaster, though these near-catastrophes were not revealed until many years after the return of Voskhod 2.

Belyayev died five years after the mission from peritonitis caused by an operation on a stomach ulcer. Leonov went on to become a distinguished cosmonaut. Indeed, had events unravelled in only slightly different ways, Leonov might have become the first Soviet cosmonaut to walk on the Moon. In the 60s, the Soviet Union had started to design its own rival to the US Apollo lunar programme. “Our Lunar Orbital Craft (LOC) was going to carry two cosmonauts into orbit around the Moon,” said Leonov. “It would act as ‘a mother ship’ for a lander which would land me on the surface.” The rocket that would have taken the LOC and lander to the Moon was known as the N1, but had to be scrapped after several test flight failures. Leonov never made it to the Moon, but he did take part in one further notable space mission.

He commanded the Soviet Soyuz capsule that docked with an Apollo capsule in space in 1975, a rendezvous that marked the end of the space race that had begun so well for the Russians in the late 50s but which ended so conclusively in US victory when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on to the Moon in July 1969. Later, Leonov – who is also a gifted artist – was appointed commander of the Soviet cosmonaut team and given the title chief cosmonaut. He retired in 1991. Alexei Leonov will give a lecture, hosted by the British Interplanetary Society, at the Science Museum, London, at 7pm on 21 May. Tickets from the BIS . Alexei Leonov Biography from Astronaut Central Seagull SOLD OUT Leonov was to be the Commander of the first Soviet Moon mission, cancelled when Apollo 11 took the prize in 1969. Leonov and lunar co-pilot Valery Kubasov were then assigned to Salyut 1, the first Soviet space station.

But Kubasov fell ill, and the backup crew sent to Salyut died when an air valve failed in their spacecraft as they were returning to Earth. Leonov and Kubasov were re-assigned to the Apollo-Soyuz project, the first linking of Soviet and American spacecraft in 1975. Leonov trained in Houston, learning English and impressing everyone with his quick wit, humor, and charm. General Leonov is a Renaissance man; a gifted athlete, pilot and self-taught artist. He is a highly decorated survivor of the harrowing days of the U.S.-Soviet Space Race. He has cheated death several times, in an early parachute accident, then twice aboard his Voskhod 2 spacewalk mission. Leonov would have died in place of his backup crew had not Valery Kubasov fallen ill before their Salyut-1 flight. Leonov also survived when his car skidded and plunged into a deep ice-covered lake. Leonov heroically pulled his wife and driver to safety. He survived an assasination attempt on Premier Brezhnev when their car was showered in with bullets. The driver was killed, but Leonov managed to crouch behind the seat.

Leonov has always indulged in his love of art, painting everything from stoic Russian churches, Siberian snow scenes and of course, space art. As the first artist in space, Leonov often paints from actual color sketches done in space aboard his two flights. Although self-taught, his works show a polish and realism typical of a trained professional. After a joint exhibition with American space artists in Moscow, he led the Soviet space artists to the International Space Art Workshop held in Iceland the following year. Leonov's works have been displayed all over the former Soviet Union, and at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. He has been published in several books (in Russian) and in "In The Stream of Stars: The Soviet-American Space Art Book" by Dr. William K. Hartmann. General Leonov is deputy director of Gagarin Cosmonaut Center, in charge of international and guest cosmonauts. He is also editor, designer, and cartoonist for APOGEE, the formerly supersecret cosmonaut newsletter. His wife Svetlana is a teacher, and they have two daughters, Viktoria and Oksana.

America's First Space Walk: Edward White Makes History, June 1965 [MORE: Read Jeff Kluger’s “Gravity Fact Check: What the Season’s Big Movie Gets Wrong.”] Still, all these years later, there’s something about White’s space walk — and, especially, about the wonderful color photographs of the endeavor made by Gemini 4 commander James McDivitt — that stirs heady emotions in the viewer. There is a kind of riveting unease in the acknowledgment that the white-suited figure in the photos willingly left the relative safety of a cramped, 4-ton sardine can in order to float in space — a speck in the cosmos — and that no amount of testing can truly prepare anyone, or any mission, for that sort of landmark maneuver. There is awe at the unparalleled beauty of the blue Earth so far below, weaving its ancient, elliptical course through the heavens. Finally, there is at least a small measure of pride, warranted or not, in the realization that a mortal man, one of us, had the guts, the smarts and faith enough in himself and in his colleagues to do what Edward White did.

(Note: Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov was the very first person to walk in space, just three months before White’s walk, in March 1965.) White and McDivitt’s adventure, meanwhile, remains notable not merely because it was a technical and imaginative touchstone of the Space Race, but because it produced some of the most memorable quotations from any NASA mission. And in light of the laconic charm that seems a key characteristic of so many astronauts, that’s saying something. For instance, the jaunty, buddy-movie banter between White and McDivitt eventually wound down to one profoundly moving utterance, as White lets down his guard at the end and acknowledges the magnitude — the sheer, irreducible thrill — of what he has done: McDIVITT: They want you to get back in now. WHITE (laughing): I’m not coming in . . . This is fun. McDIVITT: Come on. WHITE: Hate to come back to you, but I’m coming. McDIVITT: OK, come in then. WHITE: Aren’t you going to hold my hand? McDIVITT: Ed, come on in here … Come on.

Let’s get back in here before it gets dark. WHITE: I’m coming back in . . . and it’s the saddest moment of my life. In that instant, with those words, we understand that White’s space walk was both an ennobling and profoundly humbling experience. He did not want it to end. And who could blame him? What else, after all, could possibly compare? Married and the father of two children, Lt. Col. Edward White was killed, along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, when a fire broke out in their command module on Jan. 27, 1967, during a test countdown for their planned Apollo 1 mission. All three men were posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor — the highest award NASA bestows on its heroes. — Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com t First Spacewalk by Alexei Leonov: Catching Up with the Cosmonaut view example Marco Grob for TIMEAlexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space, photographed at the age of 80 in his office in Moscow on March 12, 2015.

Leonov, whom TIME photographer Marco Grob visited for a portrait session earlier this month, was the stuff of Soviet legend from the very beginning. Born in a coal-mining region in Siberia, he was the son of a woman who earned the country’s coveted Order of Maternal Glory, in recognition of what was seen as the greatest service a Soviet woman could perform for the Soviet state: having a great many babies—in her case nine. Leonov joined the Young Communist League, went on to flying school—where he made 115 parachute jumps—and was selected in the very first astronaut class. There was little way to overstate the risks Leonov faced on his first mission, when he ventured outside his Voskhod spacecraft—a sturdy, tank-like vehicle that was the Soviet designers’ specialty—and drifted into space protected only by what amounted to a far-frailer fabric and rubber spacecraft. But TIME, in its March 26, 1965 cover story about the mission, tried. “As air escaped from the [spacecraft’s air lock], the vacuum of space reached into it like a monster’s claw,” TIME wrote.

“Though it must have been rehearsed on earth over and over again, this was surely a moment of hideous crisis.” Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty ImagesThe astonaut Alexei Leonov floating in space during his first spacewalk on March 18, 1965. Leonov, however, felt no such apprehension. Like so many astronauts and cosmonauts, he describes the spacewalk experience as one of great peace. “I don’t remember anything as well as I remember the sound—this remarkable silence,” he told Grob. “You can hear your heart beat and you can hear yourself breathe. Nothing else can accurately represent what it sounds like when a human being is in the middle of this abyss.” Like other spacewalkers too, he powerfully recalls the view. “I close my eyes and I see the entire Black Sea, the Crimean Peninsula. This is not a map, it’s what I saw. I can take a pencil now and draw it, because I remembered it for the rest of my life. I looked up and there was the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Kaliningrad. I spent my adolescence at the Gulf of Kaliningrad.

It was so unusual.” Keystone-France/Getty ImagesAlexei Leonov, c. 1960s. TIME’s coverage of the mission gave Leonov and the Soviets their deserved applause—acknowledging the triumph of the spacewalk, as well their program’s commanding advantage in booster power and technology, especially compared to NASA’s puny, two-man Gemini ship, which was set for its first launch just a few days after Leonov’s flight. The historic spacewalk and the bruising Voskhod, TIME conceded, hung over the Gemini hoopla like an “embarrassing shadow.” But TIME’s story was grudging too—sniffing at the images the Soviets released of Leonov’s walk as “dim and probably purposely fuzzy,” while selecting perhaps the dimmest and fuzziest of all for the cover and passing over the far crisper ones. Soviet party chief Leonid Brezhnev “did his leaden best” in congratulating the crew, TIME wrote, and the country’s official announcement of the spacewalk was “as formal as if carved in stone.” But never mind.

There was no denying the huge step that a human being—even if it wasn’t an American human being—had just taken in space, and its impact has endured. “Now all astronauts who are preparing for [a mission] undergo full training in order to be able to work in open space,” says Leonov. “This isn’t even up for debate. If you can’t work, you don’t belong in the program.” Leonov himself would get only one more flight. He was tapped by the Soviets to command the first circumlunar mission in 1969 and all but certainly would have been chosen for the first moon-landing mission that would follow. History notes that those flights never happened, that the U.S. overcame the huge Soviet lead and eventually won the race to the moon. Leonov did not take to space again until 1975, when he commanded the Soviet half of the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission, a flight that marked the formal end of the space race, celebrated the age of détente and led, decades later, to the multinational cooperation of the International Space Station. Keystone-France/Getty ImagesPeople celebrating the success of the mission Voskhod II in Moscow in 1965.

As Grob’s elegant photos show, Leonov still wears his medals and his dignity well. He has outlived legends—Ed White, who became America’s first spacewalker, in June of 1965; Neil Armstrong, who kicked up the lunar dust Leonov was supposed to be first to stir; Gagarin, who was considered too great a national prize ever to endanger by sending to space again and who died instead in a routine training run of a MiG-15 jet in 1968. It was Leonov who identified his friend’s remains by a birthmark on his neck. The half a century since Leonov’s walk is a lot of time in human history, nothing at all in cosmic history. That dual kind of timekeeping is something the species only truly began practicing after men like Leonov went aloft—changing our terrestrial perspective forever.

Question: Who in 1965 became the first man to walk in space?
Answer: ALEXEY LEONOV